Bid 2.0 had wrinkles in it

July 1, 2015

What was wrong with Boston’s bid for the 2024 Olympics? The organizers were saying that the package they proposed was only half done at best. They compared it to a child that had a long time to look at and complete the assignment in stages, but waited till the night before to take a look at it.

The redone plan was to have brought in money through tax revenues, like jobs, revamped housing units, and a lot of other extras that left a lasting impact on the city itself. One drastic improvement would have been the city’s transit system. The bid had extensively laid out plans to redo two neighborhoods into an Olympic Stadium and athletic village. Private developers would pay funds first to move residents and buy materials for the overhaul of these two places after buying the land. The city was to have offered large tax breaks as a dangling carrot both before and after the games.

It reminded me of the failed $125 billion bond that was supposed to build a mega school in my city, last year, but the school board didn’t finish their assignment. Issues with water supply, parking, security and what to have done with special needs students were the main wrinkles, even after combining two of the oldest high schools and making one junior high into a ninth grade center.The aim was to have competed with the bigger 6A schools in the metroplex. In short, they weren’t listening to what the residents in the city wanted.The bond last year failed.This writer wondered if that wasn’t the case for the 2024 Boston Olympics.

One of the major liabilities was insurance. It was missing from the package proposal The host city, like a landlord, had to have an insurance policy for the properties rented to the athletes. That covered costs that went over the proposed amounts. They drafters set aside an amount, but they didn’t have any backers to cover them. In addition, only about one-fourth of the total venues had spots listed, the rest didn’t have a location. Like the failed school bond last year, the bidders hadn’t spoken to anyone that all these changes would have affected should this idea be accepted.

If the powers that be gave a thumbs up, Bid 2.0 still had major holes to fill in their plan. If they gave a thumbs down, they still had a major problem convincing the rest of the Olympic Committee that the city of Boston was a good venue for the games. After seeing this poorly put together proposal, they might choose an alternate city.

It was this blogger’s opinion that the city should drop out of this bid for the Olympics. The plan still remained unfinished,with the deadline in California only hours away. If anything, the city was still healing from the Boston bombing. With so many strikes against Bid 2.0 it might’ve been better to cut and run.